Cake will headline this summer’s Unlimited Sunshine Tour, featuring the Flaming Lips, De La Soul, Modest Mouse and the Hackensaw Boys. “When I make mix tapes it’s a Frank Sinatra song followed by an AC/DC song followed by a Flaming Lips song,” says Cake singer-guitarist John McCrea of the diverse bill he and his band put together. “It’s not just rock band, rock band, rock band. I really think a lot of listeners listen to a wide variety of music, and those people unfortunately don’t have radio stations to listen to. In a way, we’re taking our own frustrations and trying to find some sort of solution – at least in one fleeting summer concert.”
Set to begin July 31st at the Pageant in St. Louis, the inaugural run of the Unlimited Sunshine Tour will be a test of what McCrea sees as a possible annual junket. “We’d like to try and do it again,” he says. “It’s always possible it will be a complete disaster, but I don’t think we’re being overly ambitious with this. We don’t want tents. We don’t want fire-eaters. We just want people to hang out and listen to music they don’t hate. There’s not a certain tattoo you wear for us. We’re not against tattooing or piercing – we just think we’re not qualified to not comment on them. We’re music workers.”
Cake have also been working on songs for their next album. “I think things will definitely surprise people,” McCrea says of the new material. “Maybe a certain kind of drum beat you’ve never heard from Cake before. We’re trying different beats and different rhythmic motifs, as well as different harmonic approaches.”
So can fans expect to hear these new approaches on the Sunshine tour? “I’m not sure if we’ll be self-indulgent in that way, but we may,” McCrea says. “Our first job is as entertainers. We’re kind of like Orson Welles: We’ll sell no wine before it’s time – or whatever wine company that was.”
Unlimited Sunshine Tour Dates:
- 7/31 – St. Louis, the Pageant
- 8/1 – Kansas City, Beaumont
- 8/2 – Denver, Red Rocks Amphitheater
- 8/4 – Seattle, The Pier
- 8/8 – Santa Barbara, CA, Santa Barbara Bowl
- 8/9 – Sacramento, CA, Memorial Auditorium
- 8/10 – Berkeley, CA, Greek Theater
- 8/11 – Los Angeles, Greek Theater
- 8/20 – Detroit, Phoenix Plaza
- 8/22 – Philadelphia, Mann Center
- 8/23-4 – Brooklyn, NY, Prospect Park
- 8/26 – Boston, Fleet Pavilion
- 8/29 – Columbus, OH, Pavilion
- 8/30 – Chicago, Aragon Ballroom
- 8/31 – Minneapolis, Roy Wilkins Auditorium
